-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- A flat tire saw Stéphane Peterhansel 's lead in the Dakar Rally cut to seven and a half minutes by American Bobby Gordon who finished second behind stage eight winner Nani Roma .

Peterhansel suffered a puncture 30km from the end of the stage between Copiapo and Antofagasta and saw his overall lead whittled down to seven minutes 36 seconds by Gordon .

The American lost out to Roma , from Spain , by just five seconds and is still awaiting his first stage win in the 2012 rally .

Defending champion Nasser Al-Attiyah , from Qatar , was disrupted by technical problems and had to stop on several occasions . He now trails Peterhansel by over 45 minutes .

Pole Krzysztof Hołowczyc is third , 12 seconds behind Gordon and 7 minutes 48 secs behind the leader .

Peterhansel is a Dakar legend with three car titles and six on motorbikes , all coming before the grueling endurance event moved to South America in 2009 but he did n't enjoy his best stage on Monday .

He told the Dakar Rally 's official website : `` I am losing loads of time . I drove quite slowly in the rocky parts because I was scared of punctures . And despite this ... I had one 30 km from the finish . It was a bad special , but that is the way it is .

`` Gordon started three minutes before us , and 180 kilometres from here we had got to 30 seconds behind him . I think that when he saw us he stepped it up , leaving us in the dust .

`` He can win this thing , so it is essential for him to manage this situation as well as he can . ''

Defending motorcycle champion Marc Coma sealed the 20th stage win of his Dakar Rally career as rival Cyril Despres got stuck in the mud .

Stage eight saw Coma , from Spain , snatch the lead from the Frenchman and build a lead of one minute and 26 seconds .

Despres spent ten minutes trying to extricate himself from a patch of mud and cut a frustrated figure at the end of the stage .

He said : `` There was a torrent of mud between the inspection of the reconnaissance car two days ago and today . Therefore , it did not appear in the road book and I was the first to fall into the trap .

`` There was no way I could have avoided it . I am awaiting the organisers ' decision : after Ullevalseter , Gonçalves and a few others had gone through , they took a detour , otherwise there would have been 200 vehicles trapped in the mud .

`` So I fail to see why I and the others should be the only ones to pay the price . But I do not think we will let this be . ''

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A flat tire sees Stéphane Peterhansel 's Dakar Rally lead cut by American Bobby Gordon

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Spaniard Nani Roma won the eighth stage between Copiapo and Antofagasta

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Peterhansel leads Gordon by over seven minutes with Krzysztof Hołowczyc third

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Defending motorcycle champion Marc Coma wins stage eight to snatch lead from Cyril Despres